This application relates to copending application Ser. No. 487,485, filed herewith for "A Feed Assembly In A Rotary Press," to copending application Ser. No. 487,500, filed herewith for "A Connecting Assembly In A Rotary Press," to copending application Ser. No. 487,486, filed herewith for "A Material Feed Control Assembly In A Rotary Press," and to copending application Ser. No. 487,498, filed herewith for "A Material Sensing Assembly In A Rotary Press."
This invention generally relates to a rotary press; and more specifically, to a support assembly for supporting a rotatable punch drive plate in a rotary press.
Rotary presses are known for forming small tablets from food material. Commonly, such presses include a rotary turntable that carries of forms an annular series of die cavities, and first and second sets of punches that are located, respectively, on first and second opposite sides of the turntable and that are carried for rotation therewith. In operation, as the turntable rotates, food material is conducted into the die cavities, and the punches are reciprocated to compress the food material in the die cavities into die tablets and to eject the formed tablets from the die cavities.
These prior art presses typically form the tablets from a free-flowing powder material. In many food manufacturing or shaping processes, a food material is formed in the shape of a flexible, elongated rope, and this rope is then processed to produce the final food product shape. It would be highly desirable to provide a tablet press that may form small tablets from such a rope of food material.